Written by Graham Payne, Executive Chairman of Freshwave, a leading UK connectivity infrastructure as-a-service provider.

Across Wales, a silent but significant barrier to productivity lurks indoors. Research shows C-suite and senior IT decision makers believe that current indoor connectivity issues are costing the Welsh economy an estimated £4 billion each year, with organisations of 100+ employees losing around £4.6 million through daily disruptions. For many, this is not just a number, but a significant drain on operations, communications and service delivery.

Mobile infrastructure is often seen as an outdoor concern, something to be fixed with more masts with attention given to rural not spots by the Shared Rural Network programme and innovative approaches such as the partnership between Haven holiday parks, the mobile network operators and Freshwave. Yet in-building coverage issues are almost certainly more impactful to mobile users as around 80% of mobile usage is indoors. Often the very materials some of our buildings are made from can have a dramatic impact on the performance of mobile signal indoors. Steel-framed buildings, thick walls and energy-efficient glass block mobile signal, leaving even the most digitally ambitious organisations hampered by their physical surroundings.

Four out of five organisations in Wales report experiencing poor indoor connectivity on a daily basis. What may seem like minor interruptions, perhaps a few minutes lost reconnecting a video call or momentary delays accessing cloud-based documents, quickly add up. Over the course of a year, just five minutes of poor connectivity a day reduces annual productive time by one per cent. These inconveniences embed a layer of friction in the working day, disrupting the economy and affecting sectors as varied as healthcare, finance, manufacturing and logistics.

These figures are particularly striking given it has been four years since the Digital Strategy for Wales was first announced. The strategy brings together a range of programmes and policies aimed at improving digital access and infrastructure to strengthen the Welsh economy and modernise public services.

Fixing poor indoor mobile connectivity directly supports the strategy’s goals. The same research suggests that improving indoor mobile blackspots could boost Wales’s GDP by over two per cent, generating up to £3 billion in additional economic value. That’s more than any other region in the UK as a percentage uplift. Tackling this specific infrastructure weakness offers a tangible way to advance the broader goals of the Digital Strategy for Wales.

With public and private sector organisations under increasing pressure to increase productivity, the case for improving indoor mobile connectivity becomes ever more compelling. Many organisations are already planning to boost their connectivity budgets, but with finances tight and operational demands rising, any increased investment must be carefully targeted with an eye to its ongoing return on investment.

Some Welsh organisations have already acted upon the need for enhanced mobile connectivity. The Grange University Hospital has ensured everyone in the hospital, whether staff, patient or visitor, has connectivity with an all operator distributed antenna system (DAS). Principality Stadium has 5G connectivity from Vodafone, and the International Convention Centre Wales was an early adopter with the first private remotely managed DAS to have all the operators connected.

When it comes to improving coverage in specific problem areas within buildings, dedicated indoor systems can provide targeted multi-operator connectivity in these spaces. Strategically installed in offices, public buildings or retail centres, these systems extend mobile signal from all the mobile network operators into spaces it would otherwise not be able to reach to ensure that people stay connected wherever they are.

With so many financial and operational benefits to realise with better mobile connectivity, Wales has the opportunity to lead the way in demonstrating how focused investment in digital infrastructure can yield broad societal and economic returns.

For government departments, NHS trusts and private enterprises alike, the era of tolerating poor mobile coverage indoors must come to come to an end to ensure Wales continues to compete as a modern economic powerhouse.